That's what I mean - 'the 16PMR channels' - means very little. There are 8 PMR446 channels for analogue, you then have the licenced channels - There's no convention on what number means which channel. Channel 3 on a ABC radio is probably the same frequency as the ZXY radio, but the tones might be different, and there's nothing to stop a manufacturer using the same frequency with 6 different tones for the first 6 positions? I have some unbranded things that seem to have none of the tone in another radio have, and won't play together at all.

Your channel 9 and above are supposed to be digital of course, but you know that.

What I really do NOT get is that if you intend to use the band illegally (as many people seem happy to) why put up with all the interference and children? Why not use 446.2 upwards? If thousands of people 'pinched' the next bit of band up, would anyone actually notice? It intrigues me on where people draw the illegal line between bad and OK? 446.19375 on 5W FM illegal but OK, 446.20625 5W FM illegal but BAD?

The band is designed with just 8 channels for licence free use, unless you have digits and then you get 16 - that's the bottom line isn't it. I always used to smile when back in the late 70s, the illegal CB folk with their smuggled in radio sets got really cross when other uninformed people bought a 'car radio' and used any of the channels to chat to their friends. I love the notion of rules within naughtiness.

I suppose it's because anything above the legal freqs is technically paid-for and licenced, therefore if you start causing issues, it's (theoretically) policed and you're *more likely* to get caught. Not many people are gunna realise you're using illegal radios/power within the 'legal' section and even then, if they report it, nobody is going to investigate because there's no paying licencee to appease and no benefit to spending the time/resources to investigate, collect evidence and try to bring a prosecution.

Hiding in plain site within the legal freqs just makes more sense. Why annoy the neighbours when you're own back yard is big enough to play in? :-p

my only caveat is Don't be ridiculous. Using 100w or whatever on 446 WILL get you noticed and you WILL stand out from the crowd. If you go to the extreme, you'll just make it easier to be caught, licensed band or not!

Admiral wrote:As above, just use a 'legal' frequency and enable 128bit AES encryption.

If you have a radio that can do encryption then it is probably DMR or dPMR, in which case nobody is ever going to know you're not using a 0.5W radio if you use it on one of the digital PMR446 band channels.
In fact there wouldn't be much point using encryption in that case unless you were using the channel to openly discuss how high power your radios are...